Indian geophysicist Paramesh Banerjee, elected President of the Asian Seismological Commission (ASC) in August of 2017, takes on a big responsibility – given that a third of the world’s population lives in Asia where small, and sometimes big, devastating earthquakes are frequent.

NASA announced last month that two of its space telescopes caught a massive burst of X-ray spewing out of a super massive black hole1. NASA said the giant eruption was caused by the ejected corona – sources of extremely energetic particles – surrounding the black hole.

Veteran wildlife biologist Ratan Lal Brahmachary is a pioneer in tiger pheromone research. He discusses conservation and his recently published book ‘Neurobiology of Chemical Communication’ with Shubhobroto Ghosh.*

It’s been more than a month that India’s ambitious Mars Orbiter Mission Mangalyaan started orbiting the red planet. Nature India takes stock of what the country’s first ever inter-planetary mission is doing right now.

The draft genome of wheat was recently sequenced by an international consortium of geneticists. The ‘gold standard’ sequence is expected to be created in three more years. In the meantime, Indian scientists are digging up some fascinating genetic traits of the cereal crop.

Ann Druyan, American author and Emmy-winning producer of the popular science TV series Cosmos conceived by her husband Carl Sagan, tells ardent Sagan fan Shubhobroto Ghosh that science must go beyond merely being a "compartmentalised collection of amazing facts".

Ensuring long-term antiretroviral therapy for people living with HIV is a challenge that India's healthcare system needs to overcome, says American infectious diseases expert Sharon Lewin, co-chair of the International AIDS Conference to be held in Melbourne, Australia in July 2014.

At the 101st Indian Science Congress this month, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced grand plans to bring back leading Indian scientists working outside the country. Nature India analyses a parallel new trend — that of foreign scientists trickling in to work in Indian labs.

The role of government agencies funding science in India has come to question with the recent public outburst of eminent scientist C. N. R. Rao, scientific adviser to the Prime Minister of the country. In the backdrop of India's Department of Biotechnology chalking out a new funding regime, Nature India looks at some deep-set systemic issues.

Despite initial criticism, scientists, information experts and publishers agree that the future of scientific publishing lies in the open access model. How is India waking up to the phenomenon that's changing the face of science publishing globally?

New biological approaches are increasingly becoming an alternative to small drug molecules in medical treatment of diseases. Varun Kesherwani takes a look at how one such genetic therapy — the ShRNA approach by type II promoter — is opening up doors for complex medical problems.

Krishnaswamy VijayRaghavan, the informal, go-getter, new secretary of India's Department of Biotechnology does not sound like your typical bureaucrat. Over cups of black coffee under a pleasant winter sun — no messy files, no bulky reports and no secretaries in sight — he talks of drastically overhauling India's science funding machinery and some more.

It was World Diabetes Day on November 14. As India continues to house close to 17 per cent of the world's diabetic population, Muthuswamy Balasubramanyam argues that the 'early prevention' message should now be taken more seriously to nip an impending epidemic in the bud.

Colleagues and friends remember Obaid Siddiqi as the man who almost single handedly kick started cutting edge research in molecular biology and genetics in India. And who enjoyed hopping from field to field, in times when sticking to one lifelong specialization was the norm. Jaimon Joseph traces the fascinating life of Siddiqi, who passed away on July 26, 2013.

Though music has many definitions for each of us, scientists have historically had a trying time attempting to define music or understand its effect on us. Suvasini Ramaswamy picks up the strains of the science of music.

Seven years after the first report on the 'vanishing islands' of Sundarbans, Subhra Priyadarshini revisits the fragile delta in the Bay of Bengal to find that it is not just climate change that threatens the existence of this world heritage mangrove tiger-land spread across the Indo-Bangladesh border.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could break a bad habit easily or form a good one? What if people could control obsessive habits? Suvasini Ramaswamy takes a look at the little known science of habits to find out if we have any quick fixes yet.

It has three billion base pairs but only about two per cent of the human genome codes for proteins. In a two part series, Pawan Dhar tries to understand what the remaining bulk of the human genome is doing? Is it a genetic graveyard or a cryptic instruction manual that ensures survival of the species?

Pawan Sinha, whose work among visually impaired children in India received a U. S. Presidential award in 2012, talks to Vijaysree Venkataraman about a mission that seamlessly blends research with a humanitarian cause. Sinha is from the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Long DNA synthesis is an evolving technology that aims to custom-make genes and genomes. Once this technology becomes affordable, will it still be useful to cut and paste DNA? Pawan Dhar analyses the trend.

What do big monetary awards do to science and scientists? Richa Malhotra finds out from some scientists who made headlines recently when their science was recognised with not just citations and plaques but some high-value cash awards and ample media attention.

To make international environmental agreements work, effective political framework, farsighted policy and good science have to blend in equal measures, says S. Gopikrishna Warrier, who attended the Conference of Parties (CoP) of the Convention of Biological Diversity in Hyderabad recently.

Abha Sur, part of the humanities faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of 'Dispersed Radiance: Caste, Gender, and Modern Science in India' tells Vijaysree Venkataraman what brought about her transformation from a physical chemist into a science historian.

Darwin's model of evolution complements a subtle message in the ancient religious texts. Do science and spirituality both point to the same trend using different examples? Does spirituality go a step beyond and predict the future? Pawan Dhar draws the parallels.

Four years from now, NASA will launch a capsule called TiME headed for Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. With a dense atmosphere and some evidence of surface liquid, Titan is our prime target in the search for extraterrestrial life. Biplas Das reports from a meet discussing clues to ET life.

The excitement and anticipation surrounding CERN's scientific seminar on the "Latest update in the search for the Higgs boson" was so palpable at the Route de Meyrin that you could cut it with a kitchen knife, says CERN staff physicist Archana Sharma.

American tree top specialist Margaret Lowman, on a scholarship to India, is hoping to build canopy walkways here. Her aim: using ecotourism to boost conservation. Vijaysree Venkatraman chats up the canopy scientist nicknamed "Einstein of the Treetops".

'Nothingness' is one of the most enigmatic spiritual concepts challenging the logical human mind. Pawan Dhar tries to scientifically examine the composition and dynamics of this abstract-sounding nothingness.

The dimension of spirituality that exists beyond the physically known universe remains largely unknown. In this new series, Pawan Dhar will explore the possibility of a unified view between the two apparently divergent fields of science and spirituality.

Building an all-inclusive computational model of the human brain is one of the final frontiers of science. Pawan Dhar explains how it might help scientists unravel mysteries of brain functions, molecule-by-molecule.

Particle physicist Rohini Godbole of the Indian Institute of Science is part of a select group of scientists who will decide the design of the next-generation particle accelerator based on the outcome of experiments being run on CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC). She speaks to Nature India about her work and life.

India is emerging as the hottest destination for surrogacy says Kamini Rao, fertility expert and member of the national advisory committee on Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART). She speaks to Nature India about the proposed law to regulate this technology.

A computational model of human skin has enormous applications in the cosmetic industry. In future, it may be possible to use virtual skin model to diagnose hair growth, colour and ageing conditions or devise personalized treatment protocols, says Pawan Dhar.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the largest annual congregation of scientists — the Indian Science Congress — that Indian science has been in decline over the last few years. Nature India spoke to a cross section of scientists and policy makers to find out what's wrong, how to reverse the trend and whether the science congress is achieving any purpose at all towards this end.

Archana Sharma, staff physicist at Europe's high-energy physics laboratory CERN near Geneva, says hunting down the elusive Higgs boson make for some thrilling times in the history of physics. However, we still need more data to say 'Eureka', she reports from CERN.

Constructing a virtual cell out of a real cell calls for massive number crunching of experimental biological data into computable units. The key is to use the right combination of methods and tools, says Pawan Dhar.

Research Councils UK (RCUK), a partnership of the UK's seven Research Councils, completed three years of operation in India this October. Nature India talks to the founding director of RCUK India Alicia Greated to find out what's in store for UK-India science collaborations in days to come.

Computational systems modeling is increasingly being used in biology at the molecular pathway and network levels. What goes into converting life into numbers? Pawan Dhar explains the concept in the first of a series of articles on the virtual cell.

Every day thousands of animals get killed to feed a rapidly growing human population. The prevalent practices of 'slaughter to salver' entail risks of infection as also suffering for the animals. A new technology of producing animal meat in the lab could be the much awaited solution, Pawan Kumar Dhar contends.

Genetic code of an organism is not cast in stone. There are many exceptions to the standard codon table. Pawan Kumar Dhar reviews recent work to find that it is possible to plug in synthetic amino acids of choice into an existing genome with a variety of results.

Lungs give us life. We pollute them in return! Changing environmental conditions and unchanging human habits make lungs the most commonly diseased organs. Pawan Dhar reviews the work of Pune-based Chest Research Foundation to outline emerging lung conditions and ways to prevent them.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has postponed its decision on destruction of smallpox virus stocks till 2014. Nature India discusses this with Kalyan Banerjee, former director of National Institute of Virology in Pune and adviser to WHO's Variola Virus Research Committee.

Given the enormous popularity of the periodic table in chemistry, doesn't it make sense to build a periodic table for biology? Pawan Kumar Dhar visualises the anatomy, the potential pay-offs and the constraints of this novel idea.

Mendel's laws of inheritance were zoom-in-zoom-out. They were not designed to describe the evolution of information in the intermediate layers between genotype and phenotype. What kind of preparation is needed to discover laws in these layers of biology? Pawan Kumar Dhar explores.

Snake venom toxin researcher R. Manjunatha Kini, a professor at National University of Singapore and founder of a couple of companies working on venom therapeutics, spoke to Nature India on his love for all things toxic.

"Those who speak most of progress measure it by quantity and not by quality": George Santayana. Gautam Radhakrishna Desiraju and Giridhar Madras give a counterpoint arguing that an increase in quantity will lead to an increase in quality in Indian science.

Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay, Professor at the Machine Intelligence Unit of Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award, 2010, instituted by India's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). She spoke to Nature India on her work — application of computer-based models to decipher the secrets of miRNAs — and on being a woman scientist.

Solar lanterns are fast becoming the beacons of hope in small pockets of rural India. Megha Prakash analyses a few rural lighting programmes that are creating patches of light in energy-deprived Indian villages.

At 83, biomedical scientist Gursaran Prasad Talwar has reason to be happy. The birth control vaccine he developed at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi more than three decades ago is finally about to see light of the day. He talks about the vaccine's fascinating but difficult journey and hopes to see it in use during his lifetime.

Years of neglect have brought the post-doctoral culture in India to near extinction despite the country's economic progress and enhanced scientific funding. Gautam Radhakrishna Desiraju and Arindam Ghosh argue in favour of revitalising this essential area of scientific activity.

A critical deficiency in India's current scientific establishment is the dearth of credible administrators, who can rise to the challenges that confront her educational and research institutions today, says Gautam Radhakrishna Desiraju.

Wildlife Trust of India Chairman and conservation expert M. K. Ranjitsinh, a scion of a former royal family of Gujarat, talks about exploitation of animals by erstwhile royalty, the Wildlife (Preservation) Act of 1972, which he helped draft, and the morality of animal conservation in poor countries. Interview by Subhobroto Ghosh.

Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao, honored with Germany's August-Wilhelm-von-Hofmann Medal for chemistry last month, has been reappointed chairman of Science Advisory Council to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (SAC-PM). Author of over 40 books and 1500 research papers Rao, 76, says reading, publishing and doing original research –- not repetitive work -- keeps his mind, and therefore body, fit. "My hero is Nobel Laureate Neville Mott who published four papers at the age of 92 when he died," he told Nature India in a characteristically candid interview. Rao is professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Science in Bangalore, which he founded.

K. Anantha Padmanabhan, Mercator Professor of DFG (German Research Foundation) at the Institute of Materials Physics, University of Muenster, Germany and a former director of IIT Kanpur speaks to Mohit Kumar Jolly on 'superplastics', science education and doing science in India.

As the world remembers the father of the Green Revolution Norman Borlaug, India's leading agricultural scientist Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan says his pledge to make hunger history must be taken to its logical conclusion. Only that would be a fitting tribute to the famine fighter.

Amidst the raging debate over the success of India's 1998 nuclear tests in Pokhran, former BARC scientist Nataraja Sarma fires another salvo – that its 'fizzling out' had been chronicled many years earlier by scientific bodies in India, US and the UK.

As faculty members of the Indian Institutes of Technology across the country go on leave to protest against the Indian government's Sixth Pay Commission, Aditya Mittal gives an insider's analysis of what these recommendations could mean.

Why is 'innovation' suddenly so hot? And where does India stand in the global race to embrace inclusive innovation? Raghunath Anant Mashelkar analyses the trend and suggests ways to make the most of it.

For the much-hyped Bihar suburb of Taregana, the July 22 total solar eclipse turned out to be a no-show, thanks to truant monsoon clouds. Debiprosad Duari, who was there to get a vantage view, says he isn't disappointed as he witnessed another historic event -- the roaring success of India's science popularisation programme in a rural hamlet.